SECTION 1: APPLICANT INFORMATION
Applicant Name: Radiant DAO
Project Name: Radiant Capital
Project Description: Radiant is building an omnichain money market atop Layer Zero & Stargate to facilitate the seamless lending and borrowing of assets cross-chain.
Team Members and Qualifications:
-
Hung Vu (DAO Administrator)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hungvuprofile/
Voted through Radiant governance to serve as DAO Administrator, Hung manages the Radiant DAO forums, plays a key role in governance proposals, keeps an ear to the ground, and interacts daily with the community.
Top 10 High-tech Leaders (Washington Post & Techway Magazine) and First Vietnamese American Naval Aviator (87).
Built a Fortune 2000 Enterprise Talent Management Suite, including the #1 Learning Management System (12m users & 24 languages). Acquired by SuccessFactors then by SAP.
Lead inventor of 2 pending Ad-tech patents (Direct Response Ad-server and integrated Split-testing) for a 100m martech enterprise.
Led M&A technical & product due diligence & integration efforts, resulting in 78M of investments & recapitalization (Washington Business Journal Venture Capital Awards Finalist).
-
Isaac Prada (Director of Communications)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-prada-y-nogueira/
Isaac Prada has been instrumental in accelerating the adoption of Radiant through his communication skills and leadership as project manager of the development team.
Isaac is a former Formula One (F1) engineer with over ten years of management consulting experience. After winning a global engineering competition, he found his passion in innovation strategy and finance control to ensure the execution of great tech ideas in real life. He has worked on €25 million in R&D projects at Airbus and obtained €7 million in funding for a cutting-edge indoor skydiving project at his tech startup.
Isaac holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering Cum Laude and has been a public speaker for fifteen years.
-
Developers
FreshPizza: Lead Dev https://twitter.com/freshPizzaDev
Dan Greer: Lead designer (Front-end)
Max Astrum: Front end
Ryan: Full stack
Roy: Full stack
JD: Junior Developer -
Other members
0xStorm/Roger: Business Development
Eliana: Community Manager
Konstantin/George: Marketing
Ed/Nazzy/Duidui: Support
Project Links:
Website: https://radiant.capital
Documentation: https://docs.radiant.capital
Discord: https://discord.gg/radiantcapital
TG: https://t.me/radiantcapitalofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RDNTCapital
Github: GitHub - radiant-capital/v2
Community Forum: https://community.radiant.capital
Dune Dashboard: https://dune.com/defimochi/radiant-capital
Risk Dashboard: https://community.chaoslabs.xyz/radiant/risk/overview
Contact Information:
TG: https://t.me/HungVu_USA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RDNTCapital
Email: marketing@radiant.capital
Do You Acknowledge That Your Team Will Be Subject to a KYC Requirement?
YES
SECTION 2: GRANT INFORMATION
Requested Grant Size: 37,952 to 2,852,044 ARB, based on milestone progression
Grant Matching: NA
Grant Breakdown:
-
New Lenders & Dynamic Liquidity provider Airdrop (0 to 2,060,440 ARB)
-
Strategic ecosystem initiatives (37,952 to 791,604 ARB)
-
For a comprehensive breakdown, please view Section 3: Execution Strategy
Funding Address: 0x712e3396F039243aBda1858B5b85cdCDD0878976
Funding Address Characteristics: Gnosis Safe Multisig (2/3)
Radiant Airdrop Claim Contract Address: 0x64D17Cb7Cc9C7CF709722F19283Ebb666f58cAC8
Camelot v3 pool address: https://merkl.angle.money/- 0xD51F7383C906cfD995d7f24729F37933Ff264Fa6
Dopex v2 RDNT/ETH Incentive contract address: TBD
Plutus plsRDNT Incentive contract address: TBD
SECTION 3: GRANT OBJECTIVES AND EXECUTION
Objectives
Radiant Capital proposes a strategic grant from the Arbitrum DAO aimed at ecosystem growth, grounded in the success of our recent ARB airdrop. This initiative drove significant metrics, like a 19% increase in TVL and 80 ETH in sequencer revenue generated. We’re requesting a grant between 37,952 and 2,852,044 ARB through January 31st based on achieving the proposed milestones to extend our impact in three core areas:
-
Sticky Liquidity: Leveraging our proprietary long-term Dynamic Liquidity Provisioning (dLP), we aim to incentivize new and existing lenders through an ARB airdrop. This airdrop design secures long-term liquidity by targeting Arbitrum and cross-chain “whitespace” users who have yet to engage with Arbitrum.
-
Ecosystem Enrichment: Our collaborative initiatives with existing protocols—GMX, Camelot, Dopex, and Plutus, aim to diversify liquidity pools, enhance lending options, and foster a robust options market.
-
Future Integration: As Radiant readies its Ethereum Mainnet launch and leverages our presence on the BNB Chain, this grant can attract a broader user base to Arbitrum.
The proposed milestones will insulate the Arbitrum DAO from needing to over-allocate ARB in the event of underperformance. Transparency reports will be issued based on Arbitrum’s incentive framework guidelines, outlining key performance indicators to measure the grant’s effectiveness. Our track record in driving long-term liquidity and user adoption makes us confident this grant will provide substantial and lasting value to the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Radiant will track KPIs such as Incremental TVL, whitespace users, total user growth, and sequencer revenue generated through the initiatives conducted in this proposal, should it be approved. See Section 5 for additional details.
How will receiving a grant enable you to foster growth or innovation within the Arbitrum ecosystem?
The Radiant protocol’s v2 foundation and utility have proven to be of interest to the Arbitrum ecosystem and beyond. This can be attributed to:
-
Omnichain Money Market: As DeFi’s first cross-chain lending protocol built atop Layer Zero Labs and Stargate, Radiant allows users to deposit and borrow assets across chains seamlessly. Radiant aims to exist on every EVM chain, unifying tens of billions of fragmented liquidity and eliminating the need for countless transactions to lend, borrow, bridge, and swap between chains.
-
DeFi 3.0: Early iterations of DeFi featured many copycat protocols with little utility and high-emission governance tokens. With the Radiant DAO’s v2 launch, Radiant continues to allow all users to borrow and lend cross-chain. However, emissions are gated to only users who provide utility to the protocol through Dynamic Liquidity Provisioning.
-
New collateral support: As the Radiant DAO expands its cross-chain functionality to additional chains, new collateral options will emerge with DAO-voted Loan-To-Value parameters and oracle usage. Radiant is the first significant money market on Arbitrum to support ARB as collateral. It has the second largest TVL of ARB token on the chain behind Uniswap, adding incremental utility to the token by unlocking its borrowing power.
Justification for the size of the grant
Radiant has grown significantly since its fair launch in July 2022, partly thanks to its revenue-sharing model and community-focused ethos. As the 2nd highest TVL protocol on Arbitrum (including pool2), Radiant holds an 11% share of on-chain TVL, while the grant request is UP TO 5.7% of the $50M short-term budget with milestone guardrails in place.
The grant proposal and its size deserve consideration for three reasons:
-
Demonstrated Success: Radiant effectively utilized its initial ARB allocation to deliver positive growth metrics, validating its capability to execute liquidity grants.
-
Market Expansion: With a presence on BNB Chain and an impending Mainnet launch, Radiant is uniquely positioned to tap into high-TVL, high-activity user bases across chains. If approved, this grant can drive awareness, interest, and demand into the Arbitrum ecosystem through Radiant’s presence on other chains.
-
Sticky Liquidity: Radiant’s dLP system encourages long-term engagement, evident from the 6-12 month lock periods and the substantial retention of ARB tokens airdropped to users through Radiant’s campaign (⅔ of users that claimed the airdrop held the token).
Impact Metrics on Arbitrum
Following the approval of RFP-18, which focused on strategically allocating the initial ARB airdrop from the Arbitrum Foundation to the Radiant DAO, we’ve seen remarkable growth in key metrics. Radiant is now well-positioned to amplify this success.
Radiant is consistently the go-to money market of choice on Arbitrum, evidenced by Nansen’s stats on 7 day users and transactions, generating significant sequencer revenue for the Arbitrum DAO.
Announced on May 17 and wrapping up on July 17, the campaign not only moved the needle but also shattered expectations. Specifically, the number of RDNT token holders soared from 77,902 to 130,206—a remarkable 67% growth.
Our cumulative user base leaped from 181,379 to 275,466, marking a substantial 52% increase in Radiant users.
The campaign also significantly contributed to Arbitrum’s total value locked (TVL), boosting it from $163.9M to nearly $195M—a substantial increase of almost 19%. Compared to other top Arbitrum protocols—GMX and Stargate declining by -12.29% and -17.98%, respectively, and Uniswap dropping by -2.89%—Radiant’s nearly 19% boost in TVL stands out as a notable contributor to Arbitrum’s ecosystem health.
Radiant’s locked dLP on Arbitrum grew by 34.5%, reaching $49.58M by the end of the initial ARB campaign. This supported Radiant’s growth and fortified Arbitrum’s broader liquidity infrastructure. Radiant’s incentive mechanisms are well-aligned with Arbitrum’s overarching goals.
During the campaign, Radiant’s protocol generated over 80 ETH in sequencer revenue, resulting in a 10% ROI in this category alone. This underscores the economic viability of the initiative. Additionally, the campaign effectively redistributed and decentralized the governance of Arbitrum to users with long-term mindsets.
Long-Term Ecosystem Value
The Radiant protocol has already injected significant value into the Arbitrum ecosystem and will continue this trajectory, magnified by approving the grant. Since its launch on July 24, 2022, 202 million RDNT tokens have been awarded as incentives for lending, borrowing, and liquidity provision—equating to $46.5M at the current token price of $0.23.
Our existing emissions runway projects a distribution of an additional 100 million RDNT by July 2027. This equates to a future value of $23M.
Crucially, Radiant’s v2 tokenomics are engineered to encourage committed participation. We’ve effectively filtered out mercenary liquidity by requiring dynamic liquidity providers (dLPs) to maintain a 5% dLP ratio to their total deposits for emissions eligibility. These dLPs are also allocated 60% of all protocol fees and influence the DAO’s governance. This way, Radiant’s incentive structure rewards and retains key ecosystem participants.
With $53M of dLP locked on Arbitrum, the protocol averages $1.2M in monthly fees, according to DeFi Llama. Of these fees, 60% go directly to eligible dLP lockers. Should Radiant sustain and expand this rate, we’re looking at a projected $62M in fees funneled to ecosystem participants by 2027.
Execution Strategy
1. New Lenders & Dynamic Liquidity Provider Airdrop (0 to 2,060,440 ARB)
-
The amount of ARB granted requires achieving the proposed milestones outlined in the Transparency report by the end of the campaign:
-
Incremental TVL & new dLP milestones must be attained for grant distribution. If no milestone is reached, this initiative has no payout.
-
The incremental TVL determines the total ARB allocation at the end of the campaign, times the airdrop multiplier, divided by the ARB price.
-
Example campaign results: $13,500,000 (incremental TVL Milestone 3) * .05714 (Multiplier) = 771,390 USD / ARB Price (.91) = 847,681
-
Incremental TVL & New dLP count from the campaign’s start to end. Incremental TVL is defined as new dLP + unlooped lending TVL.
-
TVL: Airdrop multiplier increases with the milestones as goalposts to encourage attainment.
-
The campaign starts within 30 days post-approval and runs for a randomized duration ending no later than January 31, 2024, to curb gamification.
-
Users lock or relock NEW dLP on Arbitrum for 6-12 months to qualify.
-
The amount of ARB assigned to each user depends on their total NEW dLP locked against the total NEW Arbitrum dLP value by the end of the campaign.
-
Radiant will work with an on-chain reputation protocol such as Nomis and/or Trustalabs to identify whitespace users and assign a multiplier score from 0-100…
-
Whitespace is defined as a user that has transacted reasonably over a duration of time on other EVM chains but has little to no transaction history on Arbitrum.
-
For example, user A is eligible for 26 Arb airdrop with a whitespace score 50. The total Arb user A receives is 39 ARB= 26(1+0.5).
-
Post-campaign, qualified users can claim ARB via Radiant’s claim page.
2. GMX v2 BTC & ETH GM Lender’s Airdrop (0 to 483,516 ARB)
-
Should this proposal be approved, GMX is positioned as the prime recipient for the highest ecosystem allocation, with distinct advantages in attracting new liquidity and user engagement.
-
The selection of BTC and ETH as GM collateral types is underpinned by the relative market size and their potential to maximize revenue streams for Radiant protocol and Arbitrum sequencers.
-
GMX will push its incentives into v2 (trader rebates and liquidity incentives). They will be voting to create a quick migration path from GLP into GM tokens, and Radiant should be well-positioned to add utility to GM tokens by unlocking their borrowing power.
-
Airdrops are favored as a more dynamic method to boost demand, as evidenced by Radiant’s prior ARB airdrop campaign and general airdrop activity on EVM chains.
-
The amount of ARB granted requires achieving the proposed milestones outlined in the Transparency report by the end of the campaign:
-
To qualify for the airdrop, GM Radiant lenders must maintain a 5% ratio of dLP to total deposits at the block number the campaign period ends (will be announced on socials).
-
If approved, a second proposal requires ratification within Radiant DAO governance to add GM collateral support, followed by a 30-to-90-day implementation period involving dev work, risk assessments, audits, and testing. If the proposal does not pass, the allocation of ARB for this initiative is no longer required.
-
Example campaign results: $2,300,000 (GMX V2 TVL Milestone 2) * .02 (Multiplier) = 46,000 USD / ARB Price (.91) = 50,549
3. Camelot v3 + Dopex v2 RDNT/ETH Liquidity Incentives (28,062 to 242,154 ARB)
-
Camelot recently launched a v3 concentrated liquidity pool for RDNT/ETH with xgrail market maker incentives.
-
Dopex v2 is estimated to launch in October/November. Users can deposit their concentrated liquidity AMM (CLAMM) positions in the upgrade, such as Camelot v3 LPs. The CLAMM will allow users to exercise at any time, a departure from the European options that Dopex has used. This is a unified layer of liquidity layer for Dopex products.
-
Dopex v2 allows for higher efficiency with concentrated liquidity positions and enables the ecosystem to hedge RDNT positions on-chain, providing ways to mitigate downside exposure.
-
The initiative fits well with previous grant proposals by adding utility and flexibility to Radiant while increasing the potential for Camelot & Dopex to gain incremental volume and users.
-
Camelot’s proposal includes 20,000 ARB bi-weekly allocated to the RDNT/ETH pool. Should their proposal pass, this will be factored into the table, and unused ARB will either be reallocated to Dopex v2 within the milestone parameters or returned to the Arbitrum DAO at the end of the campaign.
- PlutusDAO: plsRDNT Incentives (9,890 to 65,934 ARB)
-
Plutus DAO, known as Arbitrum’s governance “black hole,” controls over $1.7M in plsRDNT, a product that locks dLP for 12 months and funnels Radiant’s protocol revenue back to stakers.
-
The impending introduction of plvRDNT will expand utility by using dLP eligibility to enable lending and borrowing features for its users in Radiant’s money markets.
-
Plutus seeks to offer users an exit route via the Chronos DEX liquidity pool. The current need is to align user demand better, as staking plsRDNT offers greater utility than mere liquidity provision.
-
The launch of plvRDNT should augment the GMX proposal by enabling Plutus to unlock over $34M in lending potential within Radiant’s money market.
-
An evaluation period will determine the most suitable DEX for this liquidity pair, whether Chronos or another platform, followed by a four-month co-incentivization phase with Plutus based on the proposed milestones and distribution schedule.
Grant Timeline
-
If the Arbitrum DAO prefers to send a linear bi-weekly stream, then the maximum allocation of 2,842,046 can be sent linearly via bi-weekly streams through January 31, 2024. After campaign completion, unused ARB based on milestone attainment will be returned to the Arbitrum DAO.
-
Radiant recommends executing 2 bi-weekly payouts at Milestone 1 for Camelot/Dopex and Plutus initiatives before enforcing the milestone criteria to allow sufficient time to build awareness, interest, and demand. If Milestone 1 is not reached by the 3rd bi-weekly stream, then incentives may cease and be reassessed at the next bi-weekly stream until Milestone 1 is achieved.
Do you accept the funding of your grant streamed linearly for the duration of your grant proposal, and that the multisig holds the power to halt your stream?
Yes, however, any unilateral cancellation or modification of the campaign’s terms related to the airdrops post-announcement would constitute a breach of good faith and could undermine community trust. Based on the proposed airdrop framework, users will choose to lock liquidity for six months to one year and therefore this should only be done in very extreme circumstances.
SECTION 4: PROTOCOL DETAILS
Is the Protocol Native to Arbitrum?
Radiant launched on Arbitrum on July 24, 2022, as the first chain deployment. We consider Arbitrum our home - most of Radiant’s TVL, community, and marketing efforts are conducted on Arbitrum.
Arbitrum’s transaction fee mitigation, combined with Ethereum’s security and institutional adoption, enables Radiant to build an ecosystem that provides users competitive interest-bearing opportunities while maintaining high safety.
Radiant built its money market on top of Layer Zero Labs and the Stargate stable router interface to facilitate seamless cross-chain lending and borrowing. Radiant’s omnichain ambitions should not be a deterrent and should be seen as a net benefit to the ecosystem. Radiant can tap into other user bases through its presence on other chains. Even when users borrow cross-chain from Arbitrum, their deposited collateral remains on Arbitrum.
On what other networks is the protocol deployed?
Radiant v2 was deployed on BNB chain in April 2023, with a pending deployment on Ethereum Mainnet in October 2023.
What date did you deploy on Arbitrum?
7/24/22.
Protocol Performance
Achievements by the 1st Year Anniversary 7/24/23.
-
Arbitrum’s top lending protocol by TVL ($204M) and daily active users (DAUs).
-
BNB Chain’s #2 in lending TVL ($93M) and leader in DAUs.
-
Generated $16M in protocol fees, fully distributed as real yield.
-
Ranked #2 in lending protocol revenue across ALL DeFi, with only two chain deployments (Arbitrum & BNB chain)
-
154K token holders and 217K protocol users.
-
Locked $76M in dLP—$55M on Arbitrum and the rest on BNB Chain—with a total market size exceeding $500M.
-
In a 180-day earnings comparison, $RDNT led with $3.8M, edging out $AAVE ($3.6M) and $XVS ($1.6M).
While working towards its goal of seamless omnichain lending, Radiant has already delivered on its aim for cost efficiency with a competitive price-to-fee (P/F) ratio of 23.7x—far outpacing Aave’s 69.9x and Venus’ 38.1x.
Protocol Roadmap
Radiant’s roadmap is governed by community discussions and snapshots. You can see progress and history here:
https://community.radiant.capital/
General roadmap:
https://docs.radiant.capital/radiant/other-info/radiant-dao-roadmap
Audit History
While Radiant v2 is primarily composed of the same codebase as Radiant v1 (audited by Peckshield and Solidity Finance) — the Radiant DAO takes safety & security seriously and tripled down on audits.
Radiant conducted 4 top-to-bottom v2 audits with Peckshield, Zokyo, BlockSec, and OpenZepplin (report forthcoming) with zero unresolved critical or high issues. Members of the white-hacking community and participants of the ongoing ImmuneFi bounty program are also leveraged to buttress potential vulnerabilities.
SECTION 5: DATA & REPORTING
Milestones, Distribution Schedule, Growth Metrics, and Transaction History
A dune dashboard and/or Excel reporting will track every ARB allocation, milestone attainment, related growth metrics, and transaction history. These specs ensure transparent funds tracking, accountability, and performance, aligned with Arbitrum’s broader objectives.
These reports will be shared and updated based on the incentive framework guidelines to facilitate timely analysis and discussion. Below is a summary of the objectives and parameters and a sample transparency report template.
Link: Transparency Reports template
Radiant’s Dune dashboard can be viewed here: https://dune.com/defimochi/radiant-capital
The provided proposal serves solely as a source of information and does not forge any legal commitment or pact between Radiant, Arbitrum DAO, or any other involved entities. The decision-making and distribution of ARB tokens remain at the mercy of the approval and judgment of the delegates of Arbitrum DAO. There are no guarantees or assertions from Radiant or any additional parties concerning the precision, thoroughness, or appropriateness of the shared information, and Radiant will not hold responsibility for any losses, harm, or negative repercussions stemming from this proposal. All entities are encouraged to perform their own comprehensive evaluations and to consult with independent legal professionals before making any determinations or pledges based on this proposal.
